TIL (Timeline I Learned)

TIL that former Tsar Simeon II of Bulgaria and the current Dalai Lama are the only two people still living who were heads of state during World War II [Source, Comments]

TIL that before Scott Colom won his U.S. Senate race in Mississippi, the last Black senator to represent the state was Blanche K. Bruce, a man born into slavery who served from 1875 to 1881. That was 145 years ago, in a state that has the highest proportion of Black residents in the U.S., at 37%. [Source, Comments]

TIL That chief cook Charles Joughin drank a "drop of liqueur" to supposedly stay warm and was the last survivor of the Titanic to leave. [Source, Comments]

TIL that in 1921, the U.S. Army exhumed four unidentified WWI soldiers from cemeteries in France to randomly select one for burial at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Their burial records were deliberately destroyed to preserve their anonymity, and the three not selected were reburied in France. [Source, Comments]

TIL Canada has the longest coastline in the world [Source, Comments]

TIL that Wendy Rush, widow of Stockton Rush CEO of Oceangate who died during the trip down to Titanic, is the great great granddaughter of Ida and Isidor Straus who died during the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 [Source, Comments]

TIL that Elton John has publicly performed Candle in the Wind, 1997 (the rewritten version in tribute of Princess Diana) only once - at her funeral. [Source, Comments]

TIL there was a go game in progress 5 km away from Hiroshima when the bomb dropped. Play was resumed after the lunch break, and the game was played to a conclusion that evening. [Source, Comments]

TIL about Peter Norman, the third guy on the podium during the black power salute; 1968 Olympics. His support to the moment led to issues back in Australia, but Smith and Carlos respected him so much they were pallbearers at his funeral. [Source, Comments]

TIL that for decades many people, including astronomers, believed Mars was crisscrossed by irrigation canals built by a dying civilization. Percival Lowell built an entire observatory in Arizona to study them then spent years mapping hundreds of them as proof of a Martian civilization [Source, Comments]

TIL: Diesel engines are 30-40% more efficient because diesel contains 10-15% more energy per litre than gas and diesel engines have higher compression ratios than gas ones [Source, Comments]

TIL Scrabble's creator, Alfred Mosher Butts, determined letter distribution by counting letter frequencies in the front page of the New York Times. He limited the game to just four S tiles to discourage players from simply pluralising words. [Source, Comments]

TIL about Children’s Games, a 16th century painting that shows more than 90 different children’s games- many of which are still played by kids at recess today. [Source, Comments]

TIL: Anthem Veterans Memorial is situated to display this at 11:11:11 on Veterans Day each year. [Source, Comments]

TIL spiders have existed for at least 380 million years, making them more than 100 million years older than the first dinosaurs. [Source, Comments]

TIL that the climactic scene of the movie The Graduate (1967) was not scripted. Director Mike Nichols let the camera continue rolling after the action and dialogue were completed, believing that the awkwardness and uncertainty of the actors was far more compelling and realistic. [Source, Comments]

TIL that by law every sweepstakes in America can be entered for free. [Source, Comments]

TIL that when gravitational waves were first observed in 2015, it was because two black holes merged, reaching an energy emission rate greater than the combined power of all light radiated by all the stars in the observable universe. [Source, Comments]

TIL about an egg corn, the alteration of a word or phrase through the mishearing or reinterpretation of one or more of its elements, creating a new phrase that is plausible when used in the same context. [Source, Comments]

TIL the catchphrase "Danger, Will Robinson" was only said one time in the '65-'68 run of Lost In Space, but is the most well known line. [Source, Comments]